• FBI ASKS TO MEET WITH SAN FRANCISCO SUPERVISORS: SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The FBI plans to talk with San Francisco city leaders as part of its ongoing investigation targeting political corruption and an alleged organized crime syndicate in Chinatown, the agency confirmed Monday.
An agent contacted Supervisor David Chiu’s office last week, an aide said, seeking to speak with the supervisor about the ongoing probe that led to the arrest of state Sen. Leland Yee and 19 others in coordinated raids throughout the San Francisco Bay Area late last month.
The FBI also has asked 10 other supervisors to set up voluntary, informal meetings with the agency, said Judson True, a legislative aide to Chiu, the president of the Board of Supervisors.
Yee, a San Francisco Democrat, served on the Board of Supervisors in the late 1990s. Since his arrest on March 26, Yee has pleaded not guilty to bribery and gun charges, and was suspended from the Legislature.
• OAKLAND OFFICIALS LAUNCH CAMPAIGN TO REBRAND CITY: OAKLAND (AP) — Oakland tourism officials are spending $195,000 to try to shed the city’s reputation for crime and blight to attract more visitors.
The money will pay for ads that are intended to rebrand the city as a culturally diverse destination with a burgeoning arts, fine dining and technology startup scene.
Visit Oakland, the city’s tourism bureau, spent a year researching how to change Oakland’s image. It recently unveiled a new colorful logo that includes a backdrop of the new eastern span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.
The bureau says about 2.5 million people visited Oakland last year. They spent roughly $1.3 billion.
• WOMAN WHO ATTACKED OFFICERS WITH BAT IS SHOT: SANTA CLARA (AP) — Santa Clara police say officers have shot and killed a woman who attacked them with a baseball bat.
A woman called 911 Sunday afternoon making threats to harm herself and others.
Police say when officers arrived at her apartment she came outside and attacked them with an aluminum baseball bat.
Authorities say the officers, fearing for their safety, opened fire, striking the woman.
The unidentified woman was taken to a hospital, where she died from her injuries.
• BART DELAYED AFTER PERSON FOUND UNDERNEATH TRAIN: SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Bay Area Rapid Transit officials say the service is experiencing major delays during the evening commute because a person is underneath a train in San Francisco.
BART spokeswoman Luna Salaver says the incident occurred shortly before 5 p.m. Monday and has caused the temporary closure of the Montgomery Street station downtown.
Salaver says it is not immediately known how the person ended up under the train as BART crews are working to break apart the train to get to the person whose condition is unknown.
Salaver says trains heading to Oakland and the East Bay are bypassing the station as those trains are currently running on a single track. Trains heading into San Francisco are also experiencing delays as well.
• CALIFORNIA OFFICIALS NAB 11 IN DRUG RING BUST: FRESNO (AP) — Authorities said Monday they have dismantled a drug trafficking organization that sent narcotics smuggled from Mexico to communities across the United States.
California Attorney General Kamala Harris joined law enforcement officials from the Central Valley in Fresno to announce the bust, which included the arrests of 11 people.
Harris said the group worked with street gangs associated with the Nuestra Familia prison gang to smuggle methamphetamine and cocaine through San Diego to the Central Valley and then distribute it to states such as Arkansas, Illinois and New York. In the arrests, agents seized 56 pounds of methamphetamine, 4 kilograms of cocaine, 942 marijuana plants, $268,775 in cash and a car.
Authorities said the group, called the Magana Drug Trafficking Organization, was headed by 33-year-old Jose Pastor Magana, who lived in Dinuba, a small farming community about 30 miles southeast of Fresno in Tulare County. He is charged with eight counts ranging from felony possession to transportation and sale of a controlled substance.
Most of the suspects were arrested in Central California’s Tulare and Riverside counties, but two arrests happened in Jonesboro, Ark., and those suspects face related charges.
